Daily updates about Syria

8/12/2014

Twitter has gone on two deleting sprees of Islamic State accounts in the last 24 hours, so my IS news will be more limited until they are able to make new accounts without being deleted.

A video by a recently formed group Jamaat Ahadun Ahad, operating their training camp in Latakia:

The group is led by al-Bara Shishani, a Chechen, and contains Syrians and many foreign fighters.

An article by the Daily Beast said that, in a recent private meeting with US lawmakers, President Obama said that criticism of his policy in Syria that says arming the rebels earlier would have led to a better outcome is “horse shit”.

Following US airstrikes on the Islamic State in Iraq, the Syrian National Coalition expressed their desire for further US aid against the IS.

Syrian-Kurdish charities and organizations have begun to provide aid for the Iraqi Yazidi refugees from Sengal and the surrounding area.

Many of the refugees have returned to Iraq through the Semalka border crossing, after escaping from Mt. Sengal into Syria.

Refugee camps in Kurdish Aleppo have been set up in Newroz, Girke Lege, Tibespi, and the village of Tel Khatun near Tibespi.

The last two days have seen heavy fighting between the IS and YPG on fronts to the east, south, and west of Kobani.

In the east, the YPG has put the IS-held village of Bir Tatmah under siege and targeted the IS HQ with mortars.

In the south the IS has been firing mortars from the village of Jadeh onto the YPG-held villages of Barkh Botan and Ashma. The YPG has been firing mortars at an IS checkpoint at the conjunction of Jadeh and the Qara Qozak bridge.

In the west, fighting has been going on around the IS-held villages of Kattash, Jib al-Fara, and al-Ziyara.

The IS has arrested dozens of FSA supporters from areas west of Kobani and transferred them to Manbij in Aleppo.

A man was arrested by the Islamic State in al-Bab for insulting the state and its emir.

The man lost several family members in al-Bab from barrel bombs. The majority of the barrel bombs on al-Bab have targeted the houses in the area around the IS HQ.

12 people, including a man, his wife, and their child, 3 other children, and 1 other woman, were killed by 5 barrel bombs dropped on the Bab al-Neirab neighborhood of Aleppo.

A Syrian Civil Defense Team pulls 2 bodies from the rubble:

There was fighting between the YPG and pro-FSAfighters on the al-Beiruti Bridge at the entrance to the Ghweran neighborhood of al-Hasakah city.

The YPG is reportedly fighting alongside the government to try and take the neighborhood as the IS advances in other parts of the city.

The bodies of 6 NDF fighters who who were killed 2 days ago were handed over.

Around 50 people from the neighborhood and from areas south of the city have been arrested at NDF and al-Asayesh (Kurdish Interior Security forces) checkpoints.

The Islamic State executed and crucified 2 men in al-Bo Omar village in Deir Ez Zor on charges that they helped government forces capture a fighter.

In Deir Ez Zor city the Islamic State has posted a notice that requires that all fighters from armed factions in the city register their name at the Office of Public Relations and Acceptance of Repentance by 8/18/2014.

Fighters who fail to do so will be prosecuted and punished.

After registering their name, fighters will be required to attend an intensive course in Sharia.

6 rebels were killed by government shelling in Qalamoun.

A tank is hit by a missile on Tal UmHoran in Daraa:

Alawite activists have launched a campaign called Speak Up, which is meant to oppose the government and raise awareness about the high number of casualties within the Alawite community as they have fought during the war. The campaign claims that 60,000 soldiers have died in the war, with Alawites making up more than a third of the dead, even though they are 11% of the population.

Handouts were distributed in Tartus, a coastal city in western Syria that used to be almost exclusively Alawite, but which is now home to many refugees fleeing conflict areas.

There are reports that the government has been able to restore its siege on Mleha in Eastern Ghouta after heavy fighting over the last day, which the rebels broke last week.

Jabhat al-Nusra firing home-made rockets on government positions in Damascus:

Rebels launched a coordinated attack on 6 different government positions on Morek in Hama province, capturing all of them.

At least 5 airstrikes were carried out on al-Taqba city in al-Raqqa. The Taqba Military Airport is currently under siege by the Islamic State and is the last military stronghold that the government holds in the province.